and Rio de Janeiro State has 5 former governors in jail, house arrest, or who just recently got out of prison. (Garotinho hubby & wife, Moreira Franco, Sergio Cabral, Luiz Pezão).
– LuizMar 21 '19 at 19:40

3

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this question does not seem to be relevant to history (or to any other science).
– AlexMar 21 '19 at 19:46

5

Illinois managed to do that with two former Governors.
– LarsTechMar 21 '19 at 21:33

2

@LarsTech At least 2. At one point, I seem to recall that they had 4 out of 5 consecutive Governors go to prison after leaving (or being expelled from) office.
– reirabMar 21 '19 at 22:14

3 Answers
3

Andalusia (technically an autonomous community in Spain) appears to have two former presidents sitting in jail since 2016.

Argentina has a whopping 8 presidents that sat in jail, including 2 from 2007 onward.

Bangladesh had 5 presidents who went to jail, of which two were behind bars in 1975.

Bosnia and Herzegovina had 2 presidents sitting in jail from 2006 to 2012.

Bulgaria had as many as 3 former prime ministers behind bars at the same time in 1944.

Comoros has 3 presidents and prime ministers behind bars at the time of writing this.

Costa Rica had 2 presidents behind bars from 2004 to 2012.

I'll stop at C, since the list is long, with a few honorable mentions:

Egypt appears to have had 5 former presidents in jail in 2013.

Guatemala 3 early in 2018

Hungary 4 in 1945

Iraq 4 in 2004

Japan 5 in 1945

Libya 4 in 2011

Pakistan 4 + 2 arrest warrants as I write this

The point is Brazil is not an exception.

One caveat: read the list with a fistful of salt, because it lists former French President Sarkozy as sitting behind bars since 2018, whereas he was only put in police custody for a day that year as he was charged with bribery and illegal campaign contributions. (He might sit in jail some day in the future, but the point here is that you may want to double check the data.) Also, Gaston Flosse of French Polynesia is listed twice.

Take the list with lots of salt. Neither Arthur Más nor Carles Puigdemont have ever been imprisoned, and considering regional governments as "regimes" is to much of an stretch.
– SJuan76Mar 21 '19 at 21:40

2

The word "regime" has a lot of connotational baggage on it, but denotationally the word essentially just means "government." To the extent that use of the word "regime" is appropriate at all, it is quite reasonable to refer to regional governments as "regimes." Probably that Wikipedia article would be better off just changing the word "regime" to "government."
– GrandOpenerMar 22 '19 at 20:28

1

This list is clearly misleading. The case of Brazil is remarkable, because these are former presidents who are in prison, by the ordinary justice, and during a democratic period. Many in the list (all 8 from Argentina, for instance) are either former dictators or political prisoners.
– Martin ArgeramiMar 23 '19 at 2:22

@SJuan76 Unless you were trying to make a joke, it is Artur Mas (or Charles Picodelmonte, if that was your intention). ;)
– RekesoftMar 25 '19 at 11:44

@Mefitico if you do not want to consider "preventive reclusion" then your reference to Brazil is a bit misleading since, from what I gather from the news, Temer is currently in preventive reclusion (so far he has not been condemned).
– SJuan76Mar 21 '19 at 21:21

1

@Mefitico afaik "preventive reclusion" is the equivalent of what in the US is called jail. A term that in many countries is synonymous with prison. You're hanging on linguistic differences here. He's in jail awaiting trial, rather than after being tried.
– jwentingMar 22 '19 at 9:43

2

@jwenting: In Brazil "reclusion" normally refers to home arrest. We say something in the lines of "preventive imprisonment" when someone actually goes to jail before trial.
– MefiticoMar 22 '19 at 11:55